


What Tomorrow Brings

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Friendship, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-26
Updated: 2007-06-26
Packaged: 2019-02-02 07:42:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12722433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: Daniel ponders his friendship with Teal'c after their return from the Odyssey.





	What Tomorrow Brings

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

  
Author's notes: Spoilers for Season 10's Unending.  
  
Many, many thanks to Devra for the alpha!  
  
Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.  


* * *

“You still won't talk?” Daniel asked, leaning on the door frame of Teal'c's quarters.

Teal'c turned his face to Daniel and allowed a small smile to escape. Daniel was struck by the gray hair. It showed how much Teal'c had aged in the time he'd been...gone. Teal'c had always been the eldest of the group, and the most experienced, the wisest, and in some ways the most naive member of the team. He'd had been so ignorant of earth customs, and so sure in his sense of honor and discipline. It had taken a long time for Teal'c to acclimate to Tau'ri thinking, but in many ways Teal'c was still the Jaffa warrior of years ago.

Daniel smiled in return. There was a time when he was considered the naive one. Long ago. He wasn't naive anymore. Even without fifty years on an Asgard ship, he'd matured plenty during his years with the SGC. Like most maturity it came at a price, and Daniel's innocent understanding of right and wrong had long ago given way to the practicalities of dealing with insistent and omnipresent evil, not all of it from alien entities on planets or galaxies far away. Oma and Merlin had sensed a purity of spirit in him, something he himself certainly didn't see, not any longer, not with all that had happened to him through the years. With a chuckle, he realized at least he wasn't the youngest anymore. Mitchell was. Gung ho, take on anything, master of the bad jokes and the corny sayings, Mitchell. 

Daniel, with his over-active imagination, wondered how he and Mitchell had survived together for fifty years. Had they argued with one another, avoided one another? Had they found any common ground, things to do together, things to talk about? Mitchell was a good man, a caring man, but he was military through and through in ways that Jack O'Neill had never been. How had Mitchell reacted to forced inaction? And to putting up with Daniel for all that time. 

He knew at least he and Sam would have things to talk about because they'd been “family” for years. They shared a love of learning, and certainly fifty years with the knowledge of the Asgard must have given them an opportunity to do that. 

What about Vala? If he thought Mitchell would be antsy in confinement, Vala would go be certifiably nuts. She'd been on the edge of crazy five minutes after they left earth. He could only imagine what kind of hell it must have been for Vala to be stuck in limbo for fifty years with nothing to do and just the four of them to talk to. On reflection, fifty years with Vala and *he'd* go crazy—or shoot her—if Mitchell didn't do it first. Maybe that's why Teal'c wasn't saying anything. They'd pushed Vala out of an airlock.

Then there was General Landry. How hard must it have been for him to command a motley group like theirs? How hard must it have been to keep everyone focused on the job at hand. One of the few details Teal'c would surrender was that Daniel had insisted—vehemently—that they find a way to save the information gifted by the Asgard. All that was left of their long-time allies was contained in a huge computer database. He still grieved the loss of an entire race, and even more at the loss of a friend—of friends. Daniel wondered if he'd conducted himself well during all that time, or if his nagging about the Asgard had driven everybody else crazy?

He stood by the door and willed his mind to settle. The candles in Teal'c's room were soothing as always. In the background, Daniel heard the soft melancholy sound of a cello. He wondered who was playing and why Teal'c, who normally meditated in silence, had chosen it for this evening. Daniel sighed, lulled by the music and the soft light. He needed a break from his studies. The Asgard had left him a veritable library of knowledge complete with lost languages and a vast history of alien cultures. All of it fascinating. All of it time consuming. All of it a legacy entrusted to them, a legacy for which Teal'c had sacrificed fifty years of his life, and the Asgard an entire race. 

Daniel intended to honor their sacrifice. So many times he was given knowledge only to have it ripped away from him. He remembered little bits and pieces from his time ascended—from his first time ascended—but much of it was a hodge podge of feeling and sensation, little of which made any sense. The day that he'd remembered Jack's torture at the hands of Ba'al had literally brought him to his knees. It was a blessing that he didn't remember everything from his time with Adria. While he would give much to have Merlin's knowledge, he was willing to forgo it if it meant he would never remember more than he already did about his relationship with Adria. He swallowed hard. The knowledge of the Asgard, however, this he would preserve and cherish.

At a nod from Teal'c, he sat cross legged on the floor, taking solace in this familiar gesture. So many times in their long friendship, they'd sat together in the candlelight, talking, meditating, or merely taking solace in the presence of a friend. 

Teal'c had been besieged by questions from all of the team—Vala, in particular, who pestered the poor man every waking hour of every day for every juicy detail of the missing fifty years. Only Teal'c could be that patient with her, deflecting her questions with his quiet stoicism. Mitchell wanted to know why they hadn't taken the 302's for a spin when they were sitting right there in the hanger bay. Sam had been more subtle in her questioning, hiding her curiosity under the guise of scientific inquiry. While she picked Teal'c's brain about how she and the rest of the team had sorted through the dilemma of the time dilation field, she'd occasionally let slip a question about where people had spent their time when they weren't working. The only thing she'd been able to coax out of Teal'c was that he'd done much of the cooking on the Odyssey, with the help of some greenery from General Landry's indoor garden. Only Landry (who chuckled at the image of himself as a gardener) seemed content to know nothing beyond what Teal'c had put in his official report.

Looking around the room, Daniel felt himself relax for the first time in a week. He opened his mouth to speak and saw Teal'c with his eyes closed. Right. No questions, no talking. It wasn't always necessary to talk. But he wondered if they'd ever had the time to do this during their fifty years together, just sit and meditate surrounded by the warmth of candlelight. Probably. It sounded like time was the one thing in ample supply on the Odyssey. He supposed the fact that Teal'c hadn't thrown him out of the room on his ear meant that their friendship had survived being stuck like a fly in amber. But he and Teal'c had known one another for years even before their adventure on the Odyssey. Even more than Sam, he and Teal'c shared a common history that spanned life and death and everything in between. Even though their lives were bound together by tragedy, it was Teal'c Daniel turned to when he needed a respite from the pressure of work here in the mountain, and Teal'c who reminded him of the value of a noble cause. 

In the past week, as Teal'c adjusted to the frenzied activity at Stargate Command, he could see the odd glances Teal'c sent his way and he could feel the...comfort, the protectiveness, the calm center of the man. The quiet inner strength so characteristic of Teal'c had grown during his—what did they call it? An absence, a detour, imprisonment, an extended vacation? Whatever it was, Teal'c had changed.

Daniel looked at the familiar face, relaxed now. The streak of gray in the hair, the subtle lines in the face, all spoke of years lived that Daniel was a part of—and yet not. He would live the next fifty years not knowing what he'd done or said. It was ironic that the SGC had been given the knowledge of an ancient race, the legacy of the Asgard imparted to the fifth race, but only Teal'c had the knowledge of who they were and what they would become. Daniel thought it odd that he who had a thirst for knowledge would have to learn all over again, and the warrior Teal'c would keep all his knowledge to himself. 

The candlelight flickered. Daniel noticed Teal'c looking at him. He smiled and Teal'c smiled back before settling again into the familiar rhythms of kel'no'reem. Daniel took a deep breath and willed himself to follow. Soon, Daniel knew, they would rejoin the human race; soon they'd endure Vala's incessant chatter, Sam's thirst for scientific discovery, Mitchell's fundamental and annoying optimism, and his own never ending worry about what to do with the enormous and potentially deadly gift from the Asgard. They would go through the Stargate and deal with the Ori, or the Jaffa council, or whatever other dangers threatened the peace of their world. Maybe they'd find the time to make new friends and gain new allies. Maybe they'd find the time to be peaceful explorers. But that was for later.

For know, the balm of friendship was enough. Whatever Teal'c knew, it hadn't damaged his concern for his team or for Daniel. If anything the knowledge had made the bond between them stronger. That would have to be enough. For now the future would remain a mystery. He let his eyes close and sank into a deep meditative state. Amid the fluid strains of music and the whisper of the candlelight Daniel finally heard a voice.

“Tomorrow, my friend, we will see what tomorrow brings.”


End file.
